The disease process in the work of Georg Groddeck

• Grant number: 13/05286-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: April 01, 2014
• End date: June 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Manoel Antônio dos Santos
• Grantee: Leonardo Moura Freitas
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The concepts of health and disease have been the subject of scientific interest throughout the history of mankind. The Galenism, coupled with the Cartesian method and ideas of Pasteur, may be considered the conceptual basis of what we know, in the contemporary era as the "biomedical model". Despite inform current clinical practice, the biomedical model should be considered obsolete in view of the latest scientific evidence. Psychosomatics is a field of knowledge that provides a theoretical and conceptual apparatus of recognized value heuristic to deal with the issues that permeate the course of the illness, as it contemplates the mind-body interface and the uniqueness of the experience of illness. Entered in this field, the work of the german physician Georg Walther Groddeck deserves to be recognized for its pioneering spirit and its ability to sensitize readers to the richness of the disease process. This process is understood as a creative act of the individual in his relationship with the world and nature. This study aims at investigating the understanding of the disease process present in the theoretical work of the author, in order to highlight the main driving forces that underpin the conceptual framework proposed, with the author's contributions to medicine and psychoanalysis, in the fields theoretical and practical. The specific objectives intended, from the study of the Groddeckian work: establish relationships between the disease process and language; identify the concepts of healing and symptom analysis and, finally, relate findings to the publications by current a systematic review of the literature that has dialogued with the contributions of the author. It is hoped, in this study, exploring the author's analysis and referrals to the development of his psychosomatic theory, highlighting its reverberations in contemporary knowledge. Therefore, it is believed that this research has the potential to produce new knowledge, which can enrich the Psychoanalytic Psychosomatics, envisioning ways to assist in deepening the understanding one has of the mind-body puzzle, the disease process and thus practices that derive from these theoretical positions.